In mid-1990s, when renowned artist M.F. Husain became infatuated by
Bollywood diva Madhuri Dixit, he decided to watch the blockbuster 'Hum
Aapke Hain Koun' movie 50 times and then create some paintings on the
actress.
He chose the iconic Liberty Cinema in south Mumbai where
the movie was premiered in August 1994 and occupied a paid upper stall
seat. And, whenever Madhuri danced on the screen, the elated Husain
himself would start dancing to her steps in the aisle,
The other
patrons were irritated and complained to the theatre management. The
owner, Nazir Hoosein, offered Husain his private box minus the seats,
where he could dance to his heart's content - but the celebrated artist
rejected it.
Years later, a Husain classic of Madhuri,
celebrating his artistic series of woman as 'Shakti', still adorns the
foyer of Liberty Cinema.
Now, 68 years after it was built (in
1947) by the late Habib Hoosein and named Liberty to celebrate India's
Independence, the cinema, which had seen some glorious days, is now
donning a new avatar - an elite cultural centre, courtesy businessman
and culture czar Neville Tuli's Osianama Group.
"Osianama has
taken up nine cultural clubs (within the theatre) which will be
gradually inaugurated over the next 15 months. These clubs will be meant
for appreciating and discussing areas like vintage automobiles cinema,
antiques and fine arts, books and poetry, photography, architectural
heritage and preservation, animal welfare, design craft and popular
cultures, and sporting heritage," Tuli told IANS.
The Osianama
Cinefan Club will premier at least 50 top films and the best of global
cinema this year and organize a dozen exhibitions on Orson Welles,
Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Buster Keaton and the Marx
Brothers et al.
This will help revive the 1,200-seater Liberty
Cinema, among the hundreds of single-screen cinemas which were sidelined
by posh small-capacity multiplexes since 2005.
"Many cinema
halls were built to satisfy the entertainment needs of allied forces
based in and around Bombay (now, Mumbai) during World War II. But all
the cinemas in south Mumbai screened only English movies," the 74-year
old Nazir Hoosein told IANS.
Hindi movies were screened in
cinemas on Lamington Road and beyond, barely five kilometres away,
considered congested middle-class, down-market localities. A majority of
them have closed down over the years or have become sad reminders of
their erstwhile glorious days.
Post-WW II, the Indian film
industry desperately needed good cinema halls in south Mumbai and
businessman Habib Hoosein quickly envisaged Liberty Cinema as the
"showpiece of the new nation".
His friend Manu Subedar, who was
guiding the fledgling Indian government's economic issues, had acquired
certain land in south Mumbai from which he gave one plot where Liberty
Cinema took birth in 1947.
Designed by British architect Ridley
Abbott, who died in an air crash en route home to London, it was
completed by an Indian, J.B. Fernandes.
The interiors and the
eye-catching Plaster of Paris work within and outside the cinema were
the brainchild of the artistic Hoosein and his friend Waman Namjoshi.
At
the Liberty Cinema's inauguration on March 20, 1949, the maiden movie
screened was Mehboob Khan's "Andaz" starring Dilip Kumar, Nargis and Raj
Kapoor - the only time the legendary trio ever worked together.
Liberty
Cinema suddenly acquired a new halo and all top film-makers vied to
screen their new movies here, making it a sort of socio-cultural hub.
By the 1960s, Liberty alone could not cater to the burgeoning demand of the Indian film industry, Hoosein explained.
This
spurred Namjoshi to create other icons like Maratha Mandir and Naaz
cinemas in central south Mumbai which originally screened movies of A.
R. Kardar and V. Shantaram.
Early in 1970, due to his failing
health, Habib Hoosein hired out Liberty Cinema to a group of
distributors for 20 years, but its neglect and decline started.
The
dispute between the owners and tenant was finally resolved in the
Supreme Court which reinstated the property to the Hoosein family.
Liberty
is described as "an exquisite jewel box of rococo decoration enhanced
by a coloured-lighting scheme suggesting a fairyland far away from the
bustle and tumult in the streets outside," by David Vinnels & Brent
Skelly in their book, 'Bollywood Showplaces: Cinema Theatres in India'.
Besides,
there is a small 30-seater called 'Liberty Mini' richly decorated with
pre-Independence artefacts, and used for media previews, private or
exclusive screenings.
After stopping screening commercial movies,
Liberty offered its magnificent heritage interiors for musicals, stage
events, film shoots and other major activities, and now it will be
transformed into an incredible cultural hub through Osianama Group.
(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at [email protected])
